Cream and sauces


Cream and sauces
Have you ever wondered why making beautiful tasty sauces is so easy when you use cream?
25 K 4.4/5 (20 reviews)
Grade this page:
Keywords for this post:SauceRecipeTasteCream
Last modified on: October 15th 2012
For this postComments Lasts posts Follow
For this post: Comment Follow Ask me a question Send to a friend
First of all, we need to be aware that some flavours only dissolve in water, while others only dissolve in fats.

This phenomenon leads to this kind of accident: If you put a chocolate mousse uncovered in the fridge where you are also keeping fish, the chocolate, being mostly made up of cocoa butter (a fat), will absorb the fish smell. Imagine the taste…

So we have water on the one side and fats on the other. Cream seen under the microscope is made up of water with minute fat globules (which come from milk) suspended in it.

This gives us the explanation: the make up of cream allows it to absorb both types of flavours, so it can absorb virtually all flavours. This means that cream produces sauces which are always full of flavour drawn from everything around it (whatever is stuck on the bottom of the pan, the ingredients in the recipe, etc.).

Add to this that during cooking a proportion of the cream will evaporate, and this means that it will thicken and give a rich smooth texture in the mouth – perfect!

And then there's the question of all those calories, but that's quite another matter…


Lasts posts
Hot Emulsified Sauces
Hot Emulsified Sauces
In French cuisine, sauces are a very important part of a recipe—not just a side dish. In fact, they’re so important that, especially since the time of Auguste Escoffier, they’ve been classified into categories. And among these categories are “hot emulsified sauces,” or lukewarm ones. ...
September 9th 20261,0275
Hot Dishes and Cold Dishes
Hot Dishes and Cold Dishes
When plating or serving a dish—whether hot or cold—on a plate, it’s very important to make sure they’re both the right temperature; in other words: if the dish is hot, the plate should be hot, and conversely, if the dish is cold, the plate should be cold. Is this really important? Let’s...
September 2nd 20268423
In baking, cold is your friend
In baking, cold is your friend
When you bake at home—especially when making pie crusts—you’ve probably noticed that it’s quite difficult to work with the dough when it’s hot. It gets soft, is hard to roll out, and breaks or crumples very easily. And this doesn’t just happen when it’s hot—even in a comfortable...
August 26th 20268905
With vinegar?
With vinegar?
When you buy a jar of pickles labeled “in vinegar,” you’re looking for their tangy, crunchy flavor to go with cold cuts, sandwiches, or salads. You expect to find small gherkins preserved in vinegar, with salt and herbs, but is that really the case?
July 15th 20261,8544.8
Congratulate the chef
Congratulate the chef
You've just finished a meal that you really enjoyed. The server approaches with the usual question: “How was it?” And then, as a natural reflex, you simply reply, “Yes, it was very good.” However, when the meal was truly outstanding, this brief exchange deserves a little more. .
July 7th 20261,344 35
Other articles you might also like
In praise of slow cooking
In praise of slow cooking
You will no doubt have noticed that in cookery, it's often the actual cooking process that gets neglected. This is understandable; it comes at the end of the recipe and getting the dish in the oven is something of a relief (ah, that's done!), which frees us to cope with what's left: tidying the...
February 9th 201144 K4.2
Devising a recipe
Devising a recipe
A question I'm often asked is: how do you come up with your recipes? How do you perfect them? This is something I've already mentioned on this page, but I'll take this opportunity to go into a bit more detail.
October 15th 201219 K4.4
Maillard reactions
Maillard reactions
This subject cropped up recently in a discussion with my three charming nieces; do you know what Maillard reactions are? With a name like that, they could well be some principle in mechanics, but in fact the term applies to something much closer to all of us: it's what gives food more flavour...
January 28th 201540 K4
Fried potatoes or fried mash?
Fried potatoes or fried mash?
In cooking there are a lot of dishes that appear to be extremely simple but which can actually prove to be very tricky. Amongst those that I'm aware of having this reputation are omelette and fried potatoes.
February 6th 201126 K4.5
Properly cooked! (the taste)
Properly cooked! (the taste)
Going out to a restaurant is getting harder at the moment. In France, at least, you have to try and find one that has agreed to pass on the new lower rate of VAT at anything other than a symbolic level, and there aren't many. And then, most importantly, you have to find a good one: one where you...
February 6th 201120 K 14.6
Post a comment or question
Posted by
I am not a leaving thing
Follow this page

Receive an e-mail as soon as this page is modified or receives a new comment.

I am not a leaving thing
We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.

Back to top of page